New EV200 veering wildly off course

[jamesfrankham]

I have a brand new EV200 Raymarine autopilot installed on my vessel—ACU200, EV1, Type-1 linear drive, P70s as well as I70s, ITC5 and Axiom9.

It was connected and dockside commissioned professionally but veers wildly off course during actual sea trials and now the pros have gone on holiday and left me with a broken boat. I’m hoping someone on this forum might be able to advise.

(I have also registered for Raymarine forum but they have left for the year.)

Here are the details... the dockside commissioning was successful. The compass was successfully linearised with a 360 turn. However when set to auto—either to course or to wind—it holds course momentarily, then begins to veer off course until the helm is hard over. This has been tested number of times, always the same result.

The vessel is a 42-foot yacht, tiller steered.

The only thing unusual about the set up is that the quadrant the ram acts on comes off the back of the rudder stock, not the front. I have a rudder reference sensor connected to the quadrant arm. It is correctly aligned with the arm, and pointing aft like the quadrant. I have tried the autopilot with the rudder reference sensor connected and—on the advise of the agent—with the sensor disconnected from the ACU200. The result is the same.

All devices appear in the system info in the P70s and appear to have power and be operating properly. There are no alarms or alerts on the system.

The rudder limit is set to 30deg, rudder hard-over time to 12s, the compass variance computed as 13deg.

I factory-reset the pilot this afternoon, went through the dockside commission again, recalibrated the compass the compass with a turn, aligned to compass to GPS... but same result. It seems to be a hardware or configuration issue.

Any ideas what can be done to test the system, find the issue or remedy this?

James

[Pete7]

Originally Posted by jamesfrankham

The rudder limit is set to 30deg, rudder hard-over time to 12s, the compass variance computed as 13deg.

James did you have to input the 12 seconds or time the wheel turning? You shouldn't have to do this if the rudder reference unit (RRU) is fitted and working. The menu system recognises that there is a RRU and sends the user down a different route when doing the dockside wizard.

Oh and welcome to CF.

Pete

[Dsanduril]

Are you absolutely sure it is trying to steer the correct direction? At the dock put the AP into auto and then +10 a couple of times. Does it turn the rudder the proper direction for a turn to starboard? If the tiller moves with the autopilot engaged does the tiller go to port?

[teddythetwig]

Not sure if it is a similar scenario, but my triton1 remote had the same issue. I would turn the pilot on to bearing mode, and it would take a few seconds to activate. Then it would automaysteer to a heading of 000° and I would have to out in the correct heading with the course change buttons(±10). Turned out the unit I bought had outdated software, and I just needed to update it. Even if bought new, it could have been sitting somewhere for a while. You should check the software version of your AP controller and compare it to the version available on raymarine's site.

[Thumbs Up]

The only time my evolution autopilot went haywire was when I had put a speaker too close to the heading sensor. Check to make sure there are no magnets nearby (speakers, electric motors, or anything with a magnet on or in it.

[rlg]

my auto pilot will do as you describe after a bit depending on sea state when it doesn't get speed info.

[Pete7]

Originally Posted by jamesfrankham

as well as I70s, ITC5 and Axiom9.

James, you might try either disconnecting everything that isn't part of the steering so see if this helps reduce the possible problems.

Pete

[s/v Jedi]

Check rudder position indicator (on a multifunction display or autopilot display) to see if position is the actual rudder position and if it moves the right way when you turn the helm.

[jamesfrankham]

Hi All, happy Christmas, and thanks for all the thoughts posted to this thread.

I originally commissioned with the rudder reference sensor and it behaved in the same way. The local agent here suggested removing the rudder sensor to take one thing out of the equation, and also suggested that the automatically calculated value of 8.7sec for hard-over time was far too fast. Instead suggested 12s, so I switched to that without improvement.

Later I reset the pilot to factory and re-commissioned it without the rudder sensor connected. Same result.

If I go through the short-form commission when it moves the rudder to port (and asks to confirm it moved to port) and then to starboard (and confirm), yes it moves the correct direction both ways.

If I hold a steady course, then switch to Auto, then adjust by 1deg it moves in the correct direction, but then keeps moving, faster, all the way to full lock.

I am vexed.

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by jamesfrankham

Hi All, happy Christmas, and thanks for all the thoughts posted to this thread.

I originally commissioned with the rudder reference sensor and it behaved in the same way. The local agent here suggested removing the rudder sensor to take one thing out of the equation, and also suggested that the automatically calculated value of 8.7sec for hard-over time was far too fast. Instead suggested 12s, so I switched to that without improvement.

Later I reset the pilot to factory and re-commissioned it without the rudder sensor connected. Same result.

If I go through the short-form commission when it moves the rudder to port (and asks to confirm it moved to port) and then to starboard (and confirm), yes it moves the correct direction both ways.

If I hold a steady course, then switch to Auto, then adjust by 1deg it moves in the correct direction, but then keeps moving, faster, all the way to full lock.

I am vexed.

The test as you describe, I recommend you repeat that with a fully functional rudder position sensor. The sensor needs to work and show correct rudder position with the pilot in standby.
If your autopilot display shows both compass and rudder position then you’re ready to go. If not, choose screens on displays so that you see both compass (the one used by the pilot, disconnect any others) and rudder position.

Now repeat that test. If during the final, off-course event, the displays show correct compass heading and rudder position, then the problem is either the network or the pilot computer. The thing is that the pilot display is a network display just like other displays, so when that shows a correct compass heading or rudder position, that doesn’t mean that the computer is receiving that same data. I am not familiar with Raymarine, but you probably have screens that show network diagnostics, TX and RX errors etc.
It wouldn’t hurt to check all connections to the computer again. I like to confirm a network connection by plugging an USB interface into it and checking data on a laptop.
I would be getting highly suspicious of the pilot computer in this case, but would check every connection and cable a couple times extra before sending it in.

In fact, I would buy another computer and swap out because I like to have one in the spares inventory

[Squanderbucks]

Check to see if you have two or more different sources of heading indicators on the NMEA 2000 network and setup only one of them as the preferred course indicator. Sometimes if more than on in the system makes conflicts.
Also had a depth sounder going bad and it was emitting electrical interference and AP started working once it completely died and I took away power to it. It was about 2 ft from the EVO heading sensor.

[freecycle]

jf
had similar to my ev200 same drive. cpu was not putting out enough voltage to maintain ap. upgrade cpu for increased voltage with ev 300.

[hamburking]

I had a similar experience with an older autohelm 3000 unit. Everything seemed to be working, would hold course for a few moments, then as it was needed just got further off course till hard over.

I also shared your frustration, as I was making a solo delivery. I had to hand steer 150 miles when I was expecting autohelm. Makes for a very different trip.

It was an early type autohelm, the kind with a rotary compass on top for setting the course. It turns out the compass had been turned around 180 degrees. So I could set a course. But once off course a little it did the exact opposite of what was needed.

Hope this helps.

[Mojadito]

Reverse the wires to the tiller drive, it is steering backwards

[donradcliffe]

I agree with Jedi--you really need the rudder reference transducer hooked up.

Go through the dockside checkout one more time, and carefully check that the rudder movement is correct and the rudder angle readout is correct. The rudder alignment check should take care of this automatically.